Two Perfect Songs for New Year's Eve

The ride in on the bus this morning of New Year's Eve I was treated to "Head-And-Feet-Only-Man" which shuffled on my iPod. "Head-And-Feet-Only-Man" is off Mike Watt's 2011 album Hyphenated-Man, an homage to the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch.

"Head-And-Feet-Only-Man" is the perfect way to begin one's workday, any workday but particularly the last one of the year. "What a fucked up thing it is!" I don't think Hyphenated-Man has received the attention it deserves. It is a true Punk record.

Then after a suitably shitty day, a day where low spirits began to compress into anger, which gradually dissipated on the train ride home, another selection off Hyphenated-Man shuffled on my iPod as I strode up the escalator out of the station on my way into the night air, "Man-Shitting-Man":

Happy New Year.

UFC at Key Arena

My Sunday devotional to the televisual began early this week by taking in "UFC on Fox 5: Henderson vs. Diaz," which was taking place just down the road last night at KeyArena.

I saw four fights.  (Apparently bouts were going on all day, starting at 1:30 p.m PT, but coverage on Fox began at 5:00 p.m. PT.)  Of those four fights only one ended in a knock out, the first fight.  Matt Brown landed two solid shots to the face of Mike Swick, dropping him against the cage of the octagon.

The other fights went the distance but were lopsided.  They were all good, all brutal.  Rory McDonald dominated BJ Penn with kicks and punches and won by unanimous decision.  Penn ended up going to the hospital.  The big Swede Alexander Gustafsson looked good landing knees, punches and kicks in his unanimous decision over Shogun Rua.  And Benson Henderson successfully defended his lightweight title by completely controlling Nate Diaz.

Mixed martial arts fights are better, shorter -- more honest -- than the boxing I watched growing up during the 1970s heavyweight heyday of Ali, Frazier, Foreman and Norton.  In my experience most street fights end up on the ground and don't last very long.  MMA emphasizes grappling and most of the fighters seem to be trained in Jiu Jitsu.  The visual of two combatants interlocked on the ground, a ball of arms and legs with two heads sticking out, is reminiscent of a Hieronymus Bosch hell realm.